MANY EVIDENCES OF ROMANTIC PAST IN NOGALES

Many Evidences Of Romantic Past Remain In Nogales

By G. R. MICHAELS, Secretary Nogales Chamber of Commerce The site now occupied by Nogales was passed over as early as 1681 by Padre Kino on his way from headquarters at Dolores in Mexico to the site of the present Tumacacori Mission. This mission was founded in 1687 and work started in 1730. This same site was also passed numerous times by Spanish Crown soldiers who founded Tubac in the year 1728. Both Tubac and the Tumacacori Mission are now located on U. S. highway 89 and are 19 and 22 miles respectively, north of Nogales. It was from the Spanish Presidio at Tubac that Captain Juan Bautista de Anza left in 1784 with a military expedition and marched to San Francisco where he founded the Presido there and named it "The City of the Golden Gate."

A recent history by Professor Bolton of the University of California describes this overland trip as being the most outstanding of any ever undertaken on the North American continent.

During these 126 years Nogales and the surrounding territory was Spanish owned and it was not until 1864 that this was acquired by the United States government through the Gadsden Purchase.

Founded in 1880 In about the year 1880, a man by the name of Isaacson had a trading post about where the Southern Pacific station is now located. The town at that time consisted of several shacks and tents enclosed by a wall of ocotillas, plastered up with mud. This storekeeper, Isaacson, wanted the town named after himself, and another man on the ground at the same time, wanted it called "Ezekiels" for himself. We certainly owe eternal gratitude to the man who suggested "Nogales" for consider what we have escaped all these years "Isaactown." The name "Nogales" is Spanish for walnuts. as it was under the shade of the black walnut trees in this section that the early campers pitched their tents.

A party of surveyors went through Santa Fe Railroad Company, to survey a railroad from Benson, Arizona, to a point named Moreno station, about forty miles north of Guaymas. Sonora, Mexico. With two crews working, one from the Benson end and one from Moreno station, they met at the line and completed the road in April, 1882. With the building of the road in prospect, between 1880-1882, others came to the settlement.

Driving Last Spike The day the last spike was driven was a gala day for Nogales. The two engines met at the line; the one on the United States side was a big Santa Fe

DECEMBER, 1931

engine named “Thomas Nickerson.” Mrs. W. R. Morley, wife of the Chief Engineer, was selected to drive the silver spike, stood with one foot on the fander of the engine in Mexico and the other foot on the fender of the engine on the American side and drove the silver spike which completed the road. This chief engineer, W. R. Morley, is the man for whom our Morley Avenue is named.

In June 1897, the President of the United States created by proclamation “in and near the town of Nogales, a public reservation of a strip of land sixty feet wide on the American side of the International Boundary Line between the United States and the Republic of Mexico.” Previous to this time, the line had been surveyed and monuments set by a party of engineers sent cut by our government. On our side of the line, the buildings, including the railroad station, were right to the very line and all the street was in Mexico. There was one building, the Brickwood saloon, where a person could go in a door on the American side and out another door into Mexico.

All this time the town was wide open. Three or four saloons on the west side of Morley Avenue, several on the other side, doors wide open in every way. In passing by, one could see paid artists, or whatever you please to call them, to drink, dance and gamble with the men. Occasionally there was a rather unusual shooting affair. In one of these when the smoke cleared away, there had been three killed and one wounded. It was at the Palace Saloon, about where the Border Cafe and the Popular Store are now located. Soon after this gun battle, gambling was suppressed in Nogales.

Now Important Part The pictures illustrating the various changes which have taken place in Nogales show: first, the line as it existed in 1893 with monument No. 26 consisting of a pile of rocks on the front porch of the Brickwood saloon, the cigar case being in Mexico while the saloon proper was in the United States; the picture showing the line in 1894 also shows the Depot and other buildings still across the International Line as it was not until 1897 by Presidential proclamation that the International Line was cleared.

Two years ago the federal government spent some $70,000 in making the International Line at Nogales one of the most attractive along its entire boundary. Beautiful ornamental fence with attractive gates made of native rock was built. The entire strip was paved and ornamental lighting system installed and, in addition, new Spanish type garitas (inspection stations) were constructed at the Grand Avenue and Morley Avenue gates.

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS Professor Says Poor Roads Exhaust Riders As Well As Machines

The saving in human energy, brought about by good roads, is greater than the saving in car operating costs, according to an article by James R. Griffith, engineering professor at the Oregon State Agricultural college.

Using the figures in Bulletin No. 91 of the Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, which show that the cost of operating the average automobile is 5.44 cents per mile, on high type (paved) roads, 6.43 cents on intermediate (gravel, macadam or bituminous treated), and 7.50 cents on low type (earth. sand-clay or light gravel). Professor Griffith says: “I note that by opOperating on high type roads, I save 0.99 cents per mile over intermediate roads and 2.06 cents per mile over low type roads.” Nogales boasts of the friendly relations and good will which exist between this city and Mexico, as is evident by the fact that the International Line gates at this port are open 24 hours a day and anyone is privileged to cross at any time during that period.

Operating my automobile 11,000 miles a

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year, I will save $108.90 by staying on high type roads in preference to intermediates. Likewise each year's operating cost will be $226.60 less on high type roads in preference to low type. This differential, multiflied by the total number of cars operating at that mileage, would provide quite an appreciable amount which would go a long way in paying for improved roads.

“To me, as a car owner, these figures are interesting. However, I am more concerned about reading between the lines.

“Cannot the medical profession give us a measure of the energy expended per mile by the front and back seat drivers over the three types of roads? What would such a chart show? I have made some short runs over low type roads requiring more physical exertion than a hard day's work. In fact, I would estimate that 50 miles of low type road required an expenditure of energy equivalent to about 300 miles of high type road. In this connection I well remem-ber a short run on one poor road made during the summer of 1929 which completely exhausted my physical and mental reserve.”

Judge: “What's this man charged with, officer?”

Officer: “Careless walkin', yer honor. He bumped into a truck and bent both fenders and the radiator.”